Sending family remittances to Nicaragua is a record

Nicaragua’s economy received a new record of $4,239.8 million in family remittances between January and November, 46.8% more than in the same period in 2022, of which $3,504.5 million came from the United States. United States, the Central Bank of Nicaragua reported this Wednesday.

The historic amount surpassed the previous record of $3,844.4 million that Nicaragua received in remittances between January and October, according to statistics released by the country’s issuing bank.

The figure of $4,239.8 million in remittances received through November is also higher than the $3,224.9 million in all of 2022 and represents 27.1% of Nicaragua’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to official figures.

“This result is mainly explained by the increase in flows from the United States of 58.9 percent, which is equivalent to an additional 1,298.4 million dollars compared to the same period last year,” the monetary institution pointed out.

The main countries of origin of remittances are still the United States, with 82.7%; followed by Costa Rica with 6.9% and Spain with 5.9% of the total amount, the central bank detailed.

83 out of every $100 comes from the US.
Of the total remittances received until November, remittances from the United States amounted to 3,504.5 million dollars, which is a year-on-year growth of 58.9%.

Those from Costa Rica totaled $294.6 million, with an increase of 19.5%, and those from Spain totaled $249.5 million, an increase of 1.7% year-on-year, the publisher specified.

In contrast, a decline in remittance flows from Panama (-14.5%) and El Salvador (-6.3%) was observed, the source added.

Nicaragua increased its economic growth projection to a maximum of 5% in 2023 and to 4.5% in 2024, “based on the behavior of a set of variables (exports, collections, credits, remittances, tourism, among others) , as well as a positive evolution of the country’s main commercial partners,” the Central Bank states.

The initial forecast was growth in the range between 3% and 4%, with inflation between 6% and 7%.

IMF: Remittances will reach 28% of Nicaragua’s GDP
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts Nicaragua’s economy to grow by 4% in 2023, fueled by record collection of family remittances, and 3.5% in 2024.

The IMF expects family remittances to reach around 28% of Nicaragua’s GDP by the end of 2023, doubling their level by the end of 2021, fueled by a rapid increase in Nicaraguan emigrants.

Almost 20% of Nicaragua’s total population, estimated at 6.7 million, lives abroad, mostly in the United States and Costa Rica, and an estimated half of them do so without documents.

A total of 217,052 Nicaraguans were apprehended at the southern border of the United States in 2022, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Since the outbreak of the crisis in Nicaragua in April 2018, at least 344,000 Nicaraguans have been intercepted at the southern border of the United States, according to CBP.

The crisis that Nicaragua has been going through since then has caused the largest exodus in its history, even greater than that of the 1980s, when the country was waging a civil war that left tens of thousands dead, according to the report “Situation of forcibly displaced peoples Nicaraguans”, prepared by the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective.